Sheriff's Deputies Confirm Newsweek's Bitcoin Quotes

Newsweek's Leah McGrath Goodman claims that she's located the reclusive Bitcoin inventor "Satoshi Nakamoto." Earlier today, I suggested that (a) her primary piece of evidence was a brief conversation she had with Nakamoto in front of his home with sheriff's deputies present, and (b) this could be pretty easily checked. Sure enough:

The San Gabriel Valley suburb of Temple City was inundated by reporters Thursday after Newsweek alleged resident Dorian Nakamoto was really "Satoshi Nakamoto," the man behind the virtual currency. In the Newsweek article he is quoted as telling the reporter "I'm no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" while deputies are present.

....Capt. Mike Parker said he has spoken to both deputies who responded to the suspicious persons call on Feb. 20. He said "one of the two deputies had heard of bitcoins but only knew vaguely about them" prior to the call. He said the reporters' statements and questions about Bitcoin prompted the conversation.

“Both sheriff’s deputies agreed that the quotes published in the March 6, 2014, Newsweek magazine Bitcoin article that were attributed to the resident and to one of the deputies were accurate.”

Count this as a very big piece of evidence that Goodman's reporting is accurate and that Temple City's Dorian Nakamoto really is the inventor of Bitcoin. It's not quite a smoking gun, but it's getting there.